


Outlast

by Maleficent265



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Angst, Canon Divergence, Drama, Escape, F/M, Hostage Situations, Language, Older Man/Younger Woman, Overall Crassness, Possible Rating Change, Romance, SnowBert, Snowells, Snowells-Centric, Survival, Suspense, Violence, dark themes, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 18:49:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11675007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maleficent265/pseuds/Maleficent265
Summary: All things considered, Caitlin was lucky… Aside from being trapped on a different earth and navigating through unfamiliar terrain in the middle of a storm while mutated animals were on the hunt, she was alive when she shouldn’t have been.**Set during 3x13 Attack on Gorilla City**





	Outlast

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! Quick note here:
> 
> I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with this little snippet of a fic. But it's been on my mind ever since 3x13... So, I just wanted to throw out what I had and see if it interests anyone. As of right now, it's just going to be one chapter. I may continue it a little later on but I'm honestly not sure.¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ It's something I've gotta think about for a bit...
> 
> I DO know, if it gets continued, the rating will probably change, there will be gratuitous amounts of angst and romance, lots of pain and blood, and lots of meta-humans fighting to the death. If you read The Fallout and liked it, this would more than likely be for you... If you read The Fallout and HATED it, this is something that wont set well with you and you may want to skip it and wait for the next chapter of Fall Right In instead.
> 
> In the meantime, while I decide what I want to do with this fic, Welcome to the Jungle!

There were too many… Every time she rounded the thick stalk of a tree, her fingers digging into the wet, moss-covered bark as she sprinted headlong into the brush, she could hear the echo of their guttural hoots, the slam of their fists as they pounded against the sodden earth, and the cracking of the forest around her as their bulky bodies ripped through the brush. She bolted through the rain, her boots getting caught with every stomp and all but submerging in the sludge beneath her feet, making her already weary steps heavy and uncoordinated.

In a forest thick with trees, the canopy did little to shelter the ground below as the rain relentlessly fell in the form of large droplets, making visibility nearly impossible, what with the dense fog rising from the ground and covering the vegetation with a thick coat of grey smog. She couldn’t see, could hardly move, and with the thicket around her seemingly coiling at her legs with a mind of it’s own, she quickly slammed knees first into the mud; her fingers curling into the cool, saturated bits of ground before hearing another low grunt that was close and loud enough to rumble through her ribcage. Clawing to her feet and taking off through the brush once more, she shot onward, feeling the earth shake under her soles as an army of gorillas thundered after her.

All things considered, Caitlin was lucky… Aside from being trapped on a different earth and navigating through unfamiliar terrain in the middle of a storm while mutated animals were on the hunt, she was alive when she shouldn’t have been.

Grodd didn’t sense the change in her DNA after Barry created flashpoint, and  _ that _ was just her luck after trying so hard to hide her powers from the rest of the world, and regretting not taking a stand after she’d watched an overgrown primate (who she’d once befriended) push into Barry and Cisco’s individual cells, and rip them out by the limbs, eliciting horrifying cracks to their bones as he gripped too hard and yanked with violent intent. She could still hear Cisco screaming after Grodd slammed him to the ground and dragged him away by his newly broken leg - could still see Barry’s chilled gaze after his big eyes snapped to her, the subtle shake of his head as he silently willed her to stand down just seconds before Grodd all but wrenched him up by the neck with bone-crushing strength and lugged her friends out of the dungeon like ragdolls. And reasoning hadn’t done a damn thing, not with Grodd’s heavy grunt and the impact of his fists striking at the stone below with enough force to grind it into rubble.

Whatever small alliance they’d had on her earth was no longer relevant now that he’d been sent to the jungle to fend for himself… And she probably should have seen that coming, but with Grodd ramming his body into the bars of her cell to force her submission, causing her mouth to snap to a close and both her and Harry to jerk back after the booming collision, she was beginning to understand that nothing could’ve prepared her for his anger and savagery.

She’d been the one to trick him the night he was knocked into that breach, wasn’t she? She betrayed him, and no matter how good her intentions had been, she hurt him and based on the way he’d barked orders at the apes under his command to deal with her, the cut of that wound hadn’t healed.

But she wasn’t important to him, not anymore… Especially so since, to his knowledge, she  _ wasn’t _ a meta and wasn’t a useful participant in their games. Barry and Cisco, who’d been openly using their powers from the moment they landed in the jungle, had unfortunately made the cut and were placed in the rotation to compete against other captive metas in Gorilla City’s arena.

Thunder rumbled overhead with a low and angry growl that somehow seemed less severe than the continuous screams around her… The promise of death came off as an ironic punch to the gut, especially since she’d campaigned in favor of Grodd’s well being after he’d kidnapped her. A lot of good  _ that _ did… She may not have been selected to participate in their  _ games _ , but she was definitely serving as entertainment for the unit of apes that had dragged her, Harrison, and Julian to the middle of the forest in order to be set free and told to run as fast as they could…

They waited, pacing back and forth, tossing sticks and hooting, charging just to stop right before coming back into contact to encourage their trio to get moving… It wasn’t freedom. They were turning them loose just to hunt them down.

It took a rough ten seconds before Harrison grabbed at her coat sleeve and tugged her toward the brush, causing Julian to do the same but instead of following, he started pulling in a different direction. And then, just as Julian opened his mouth to growl something at Harrison, one of their captors had grown impatient enough to grope for a reasonably sized stalk of a fallen tree and toss it toward them, causing them to break apart and shoot in opposite directions like a herd of startled deer.

Caitlin wasn’t exactly clodhopping through the jungle on her own but for the time being, now that the three of them had scattered in a panic, she was completely alone... As much as she would have liked to call out, it wasn’t an option, not with the hyped screeches of gorillas hooting back and forth as they trampled through nearby trees in a chaotic search for her and the other members of her party.

She wasn’t exactly sure when she’d stopped moving but suddenly, after feeling her boots sink into the mud below and blinking through the haze of rain, she realized that she’d come to a halt; frozen in place and shifting her gaze through the ever-greying fog to catch a glimpse of either, Julian, Harrison, a  gorilla who might be rushing passed, a clear path to take -  _ anything _ . There was a sudden sensation of panic bubbling through her chest, causing her gut to churn in a way that made her feel like she was on the verge of throwing up and it was enough to make her suck in a lungful in order to keep the bile at bay. But with the humid air, thick and heavy as she breathed, the only thing she managed to do was pull in a fog-laden mouthful that had her immediately coughing through the wet condensation she’d just consumed.

It didn’t matter if it had been hours or minutes since she’d been separated from her group, it didn’t matter if she’d be putting the final nail in the coffin to her freedom, and it didn’t matter if they’d already been recaptured because she couldn’t do this by herself… Call it an issue that stemmed during her childhood, but isolation and abandonment were probably some of her biggest fears and it was the sole reason she’d been reluctant to come clean about her powers in the first place. All she knew, was that she couldn’t be alone anymore; not with those damn apes stamping in a chaotic mess as they howled through the trees.

So, with a scream that was loud enough to bounce off the trees and carry above the pad of rain, Caitlin let out a desperate,  _ “Julian?!” _

In response, a roar ripped through the forest and suddenly, with the echoes around her changing shape and growing impossibly louder as a stampede of mutated gorillas thundered closer, Caitlin whirled around to sprint the other way but was rendered to a standstill, what with the dark silhouette emerging from the fog and charging right for her.

_ Oh, shit... _


End file.
